Your Friends and Family perspective of ancient coins

For me, the less people IRL that know I collect, the better. Keeps my collection safer that way, and I don't get thought of as weird or a hoarder or something.

My immediate family does know of course. My parents think its a waste of money and time, so I don't bother to let them know of my new pickups nor do I talk to them about my coins or the history behind them. I did manage to get my little brother to collect for like a year, but that interest has since died off, and I don't discuss coins with him either.

 

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Dont ask

 

I have good hopes that it will turn some day

 

Most of my friends and family are bored of my talking about ancients. My mom likes t look at the new ones I get and my nephew liked the ones I gave him but thats about it.

 

Not surprisingly my wife finds coins geeky and nerdy and is bored to pieces over them. I dont even show them to her anymore. The kids think they are a oddity, nothing else. As I also collect antiquities, my wife 'kind' of likes those. She took a large Han Dynasty grain urn to decorate her office. That is about the extent of it!

 

I am fortunate that I have a wife that actually acts interested when I am showing my coins. However, I clearly understand the "limits" to those interests. When their eyes glaze over like some of the fish I have landed, then I know it is time to stop showing... And, she really does not know all the expenditure, else, I think she would become a bit TOO interested.

She loves hobbies, some collecting, and cooking so she understands my passion for combining my love for history, and edifying it with coins as placemarkers in time. Her knowledge of history is pretty much limited to my pontifications...

 

Yeah but you sell them, the wife should understand it's a source of income. Just realized too, I got a couple of coins from your store awhile ago. Even got the label too.

 

Well, she does understand that part. She could care less what they are, but she gets annoyed when I dont make enough sales! Hope your happy with the coins from me!

 

WOW! Is this a great place to pick up chicks?

 

I apologize for going on topic. About 15 years ago, I got involved with a charitable/educational group called Ancient Coins for Education. They distributed uncleaned coins to Latin and World History teachers for the kids to clean and identify. Where possible, a local collector would visit one day and help with the ID process. In the beginning the coins were free to teachers and paid for by donations from dealers/collectors. Later, they decided to sell a better grade of uncleaned so more kids would leave with a good experience. That ended up driving poor public schools out of the program as had the increasing move to teaching to a State test which meant that the time spent on coins was not spent making the school's test scores higher. I quit when my last public school dropped out. They also ran essay contests with coin prizes where a teacher could submit the best from the class to be judged by volunteers (like me). First prize was usually a denarius donated for the purpose.

To prove I am a name dropper: One of my four schools was the Richmond VA private Collegiate School. I worked with a Latin teacher and an 8th Grade History teacher. That was the time that Russell Wilson (Seattle Seahawks Quarterback) was a student there. I have no idea if he took Latin (more did in that school than any other school in my experience) but if any of you people in your late 20's went to Collegiate and got interested in ancient coins while there, I'll claim credit.

I really thought ACE was a good idea but it would have worked better when schools were run by the teachers and local administration and not by the testing services. I believe it still operates in some places but I have not had contact for years. Toward the end, I lost a school when a Latin teacher left and was replaced by one who believed that private ownership was a sin so I doubt the idea will ever be what we once hoped. I actually met a few kids who had coins of their own before their teacher did the ACE program and were happy to show them to me. I hope a few of them still care and even more of them will take up the hobby in thirty years when they retire.

 

I used to show my coins to the girls at work, but had to stop. It became a workplace distraction. I would catch them leering at me out of the corner of my eye and the boss told me to stop distracting the women of the office by swooning with my ancient knowlege. Too many sapiosexuals at the office. In addition, the random drop ins at night (stalking) and 02:00 texts in the morning got old really quick. Especially for my wife .

In all seriousness, if any of you guys/gals are single, maybe don't start the conversation off by talking about the difference between the bust styles on your eastern and western Septimius denarii.

My wife is indifferent to my infatuation. I take care of the finances, so she doesn't really care about how much money is spent. I consider myself very fortunate to be in the position I'm in. I've always left the idea on the table, that if she found something of collectible interest, that we could start investing in it. We've bought a few 18th and 19th century books, but that fizzled out.

I just asked her opinion after seeing this thread, to which she replied "When you first started collection ancients, they were very interesting for the historical value; but after the hundredth one you showed me, they all look the same."

I fantasize about her wanting to collect ancients with me. Pretty pathetic compared to what other men my age fantasize about.

-Michael

 

The chicks of Coin Talk are of the finest sort, I wonder if there is enough of them to make a calendar. @TIF

 

My wife thinks ancient coins are akin to magic beans.

 

What a great neologism! I hadn't heard it before and had to look it up. I will definitely use the word in casual conversation at the first opportunity .

 

But you have, of course, seen the Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) episode A Scandal in Belgravia...

 

No . I cut off cable years ago and haven't turned on my TV in so long that I gave it to a random repairman last week. My internet connection type/speed has improved lately so I might be able to download more movies and TV episodes now, if it doesn't cut in to my coin browsing time .

 

I think it is still running, as I was looking into doing this for my school. Unfortunately we don't have the budget... I do use my own collection in class as illustrations, and the kids (mostly) enjoy it.

As for family, my wife doesn't care, but is more tolerant of the coins than the comic books (or Legos, which she insists I include in this post...). My mother really likes them, but would rather have the coins in jewelry. My father and sister both like the history, but don't really want to take the time to appreciate them. It's more a "that's neat" and tend to move on.

 

Sapiosexual does not seem to have a context you would want to use to someone's face. How about numismosexual?

 

It might be misconstrued as a synonym of asexual .

 

I just have Netflix and Hulu and download shows that are on premium cable channels. Been doing this for years now.